


Danger and Co.

by Starora



Series: Beyond The End [2]
Category: Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys (Album), My Chemical Romance
Genre: Other, read part one of this series first please!
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-02
Updated: 2016-04-07
Packaged: 2018-05-24 03:12:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 6,926
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6139397
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Starora/pseuds/Starora
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Not all of America is controlled by Better Living Industries in 2019. There is a place where Killjoys rule the roost.<br/>Welcome to The Garden, a small area of this radiation infested wasteland the Killjoys call home, and possibly the only place that rivals BL/ind in scientific progress - which means that they want to shut it down.<br/>What is needed is someone to fight back. Someone to protect all of the progress that has been made. Maybe even a group of someones, armed to the teeth with ray-guns and daggers and various pieces of misused sporting equipment.<br/>Introducing Danger and Co. - Just the kind of human wreckage that you love!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A Garden Full Of Killjoys

Following negotiations between the American Better Living Industries officials and the Killjoy politician Uno (as well as his two assistants; Dos and Tré), a conclusion had been made that there was to be an area of land designated for rebels only - it was to be a safe haven for them, and it would keep them from disrupting the work of BL/ind.  
And so The Garden was created. Almost 8723 square miles of land, free from the laws, restrictions, and advertisements of modern America. A small lump of land surrounded by Empire State to the north, Toll State to the west, and the (tiny, but highly populated) Diamond State to the south. It could have been a lot worse; it was as far from the "Stacks" of Nuclear Sunshine's power stations as physically possible, there was a large body of water to the east which apparently led nowhere (although, that was only what BL/ind claimed, and nobody could prove otherwise due to the scheduled patrols that kept the rebels from venturing off into the unknown), and the climate had not been damaged too much by nuclear fallout.  
  
When the treaty was signed in 2013, stating that The Garden would become rebel territory, the former residents of the area signed over their houses and any land that they owned, fleeing for any other state which was not about to become overrun with Killjoys. The abandoned properties were handed out at random to any rebels who filled in the required paperwork, promising that they would stay inside The Garden and not mess with anything belonging to the large corporations that had agreed to sign over the land.  
But soon it was realised that The Garden would be no Eden. Better Living Industries controlled all of the utilities that were needed to make things run; The Garden was to get no electricity, no water, and no food unless they ventured into Empire State. The place was littered with shanty towns, people were breaking into disused factories and lodging there instead of filling in a few sheets of paper and claiming their very own empty suburban house.  
There were riots in the streets over the lack of utilities, people blamed Uno for everything (even though it was later realised that he and his team were tricked into this poor deal), leading to him being sent into exile. Nobody was too sure where Uno, Dos, and Tré went after that - the common belief was that they were living somewhere out in the northern icefields - but, once their names had been cleared, there were occasional cryptic radio broadcasts from them. Still, it was impossible to tell whether they would return.  
  
The struggles lasted a year, slowing down when S/C/A/R/E/C/R/O/W started to send low-threat rebels that they had captured into The Garden. The combined knowledge of the Killjoys who had been surviving in settlements out in the Zones benefitted The Garden greatly, and gradually the situation became better.  
By 2015, most of the houses in The Garden were covered in solar panels and had water butts that gathered water which flowed through the filtration centres and was shared out to everyone. Many of the residents had taken up gardening, growing what they could and using what they did not need as bartering material.  
  
However, seeing that The Garden was becoming stronger, Better Living Industries began to send in Draculoids, trying to crush any structured businesses that were being set up. Anger grew and protests occurred, hoping to rid The Garden of the corporate mess that America had become.  
Lots of Garden Killjoys took to creating surveillance and espionage systems, trading their creations and information with rebels from the Zones for things which they could not obtain otherwise.  
This created the need for The Garden's own security teams; small groups of the most ruthless Killjoys that came to be known as Anti-Exterminators. These groups listened out for any signs of unrest, and, if there were any Draculoids about, they would make quite a show of taking them down.  
  
Anti-Exterminators came to be celebrities amongst the Killjoys, gaining a following of obsessive fans who would do anything to be near them. People would brag about seeing an Anti-Exterminator group in action, and photographs of them were coveted - an exceptionally good photograph could sell for over three-hundred credits.  
  
One of the most famous (or infamous, if you happen to work for Better Living Industries) teams of Anti-Exterminators was a group called _Danger and Co._ \- otherwise known as Sorrow Monro, Vindici St Helens, Pepé G. Paradis, and the fabulous Hijack * AllHallows.


	2. Paint It With Neon

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 'I am the master of the wicket. I am the master of the wicket. I am the master of the wicket.' Vindici chanted as she pummelled the mannequin (which she had aptly dressed in Draculoid uniform) with her croquet mallet.  
'What the fuck is a wicket?' mumbled Sorrow, who was sitting behind her, next to the radio, and lazily holding one half of his headset to his right ear whilst his left ear was bare, allowing him to listen in on Vindici's antics.  
'I have no idea, but I am the master of it.' Vindici swung the mallet, knocking the masked head off of the mannequin and watching as it bounced across the floor and rolled under the desk that was wedged neatly in the corner of the room. 'You picked anything up yet?'  
'Not really... Oversized hailstones in Saint City, may be linked to nuclear developments... Rumours suggest that Uno could be showing up in Battery City soon, again... Alleged sighting of Night Shades and other Killjoys on route from Battery City to Second City. All quite interesting, but nothing we can intervene with.'  
'What about the others?'  
Sorrow shrugged, flicking a switch on the radio equipment which turned on a small red LED light. 'Demolition Lover to Asterisk, how goes the shopping?' He raked a hand through his coarse matted hair and waited for a reply.

After about a minute, the radio receiver crackled loudly, filling the entire room with a deafening hiss. Vindici ran to the glass folding door and pulled the heavy white curtain across it, trapping the sound in there with them, whilst Sorrow frantically turned each of the dials on the machine, hoping that at least one of them would make the noise a little more bearable.

'YO DUDEZ!' The radio screamed in an overpowering voice that was synthesised into ambiguity. 'GUESS WHAT EFFIN' SHINY TRASH WE'RE 'BOUTTA DRAG IN!'  
'Hey, Hijack, could you either be a little quieter or ask Pep how to turn the volume down on this thing - the system's broken again.'  
'YEAH, SURE!' There was a pause. 'PEPSY SAYS ITS THE SLIDER ON THE LEFT, IF NOT, USE DUCT TAPE ON THAT M-F!' Sorrow followed the instructions, relieved to hear the crackling noise beginning to subside.  
'Much better... You near?'  
'We got an ETA of five from our final destination! Base camp here we come!' The voice was now much more recognisable as the childlike and overexcited sound of Hijack AllHallows, the most sought-after Anti-Exterminator in the entirety of The Garden.  
'You got my meds?'  
'Hell yeah! Fresh meds straight from The Piff!' Hijack was referring to the Killjoy-run hospital that supplied medication to all of the Garden residents. 'But, hey! You haven't guessed what we're hauling yet!'  
'Is it cake?'  
'Nope! Far from as can be!'  
'Bummer... Wait, it's not two cakes, is it?' That was exactly the sort of thing that Hijack was likely to pull.  
'What do you think far from means? Is Vinnie there? Of course Vinnie's there (where else would she be?)! Guess guess guess!'  
'Not cake?' Vindici mused. 'Is it a weapon of some kind?'  
'Would fucking hurt if you hit someone with it! But, nah reallsy.'  
'Some kind of sporting equipment? A friend for my mallet?'  
'Nopesies! And ding ding ding! Your time is up! Come outside and claim your prize!'

Curious as to what Hijack could be talking about, Sorrow and Vindici slowly headed to the door, passing through their kitchen and through the front room (which, with its bright orange walls and scattered magazines, also doubled as Pep's bedroom) to exit out the front door of the house.  
What was outside appeared to be a typical suburban neighbourhood except for the fact that all of the houses had undergone absurdly wacky paintjobs; three of the houses on the small circular offshoot of road where they lived - which had been affectionately labelled in the outdated signposting as "Sanders Crescent" - had rainbows painted on the roof, and most of the buildings wore flags bearing the logos of the Killjoys living there.  
Somehow it seemed fitting as the beat-up, (mostly) neon yellow Subaru Tribeca with various stickers and motifs plastered over it turned the corner into the crescent. A head of glittery cyan hair was dangling from the passenger-side window of the car. It was Hijack, ze was groaning along to one of zes favourite The Mad-Gear and Missile Kid songs which ze had recorded for zes own personal collection. As the car neared the house, Hijack turned zes shouting towards Sorrow and Vinnie.

'Yo yo Ro-Ro! An' Vin-Dee-Cheeee! Look what we're towing! Ain't it shiny as Hell?'


	3. Invisible Dangers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 'Broke up a fight outside Dolo's!' Hijack explained. 'Some dudes were fighting over a sweet Chevy convertible! Jet black, so cool!' There was always something going on at Dolo's second-hand vehicle emporium (or, as it was spelt in the child's script of the signs: "veecle 'porium"), it was the go-to place for any Killjoy's transportation needs in The Garden and there were frequent arguments over the best of the cars that Dolo and his employees had obtained. 'So, like, once the squabbling was over, Dolo took us to one side and was like "you did fuckin' awesome" and blah blah blah... Then he went and offered us this!'  
The "this" in question was a slightly rusty white caravan which had been attached to the back of their Subaru. There was no doubt that their story was true, Dolo, having once been a criminal in Second City, had cleaned up his act since S/C/A/R/E/C/R/O/W relocated him to The Garden; his business was thriving, he was happily married with a two year-old daughter, and he had adopted three Killjoy orphans who were more than happy to work with him. Vindici and Sorrow could both easily picture the large man, whose thinning blue hair had bleached tips, trying to convince Pepé that the caravan was a good idea, pushing his gold-rimmed "women's designer sunglasses" up his face when they slipped down so as to not expose his eyes to the harsh sunlight. And, of course, it was Pepé that was the one that needed convincing - Hijack was easy to convince, Hijack liked stuff a little too much.

'So. Any thoughts?' Hijack said after a few minutes of waving zes hands in the general direction of the new possession and watching as the others absorbed the visual information of its existence.  
'It's a caravan.' Sorrow muttered, not exactly sure what sort of reaction Hijack was expecting from them.  
'Hey! It's not just any caravan! It's _our_ caravan!' Hijack corrected him. 'Y'know, we just need, like, a cat or two and we might as well be a fuckin' nuclear family!'  
The silver-haired mess that was Pepé suddenly appeared from behind where Hijack was standing (he was unusually stealthy), groaning quietly and covering his darkly-painted eyes with his hands - clearly not being able to take Hijack's stupid joke.  
'So who wants the tour?' Hijack asked, making an attempt to stop the mildly disappointed looks that had been caused by zes sarcastic comment. Ze even did a slight one-eighty degree hop with the expectation that the others would follow. When ze finally heard the slowly approaching footsteps, ze felt quite relieved that ze had managed to gather a team of people who were not too off put by the deteriorating sense of humour that ze presumed was caused by being in the Zones just outside of Battery City for too long.

'Alright! First things first! Cool storage compartment!' Hijack skipped over to the front of the caravan, where it attached to the car, opening up a large flap in the bodywork. 'We can put things in here! I mean, I already have! Hey, Sorrow, here's your stuff!' Hijack plucked a paper bag from the storage space and pressed it firmly into Sorrow's hands. 'It was packaged lovingly by your ultra-cool-super-doctor, who, by the way, wanted to remind you to schedule your next appointment!' To be honest, everyone was a little jealous that Doctor Chase Chimera, the former Zones medic who had become the "administrator" of The Piff, had taken it upon himself to be in charge of Sorrow's medication and treatment on top of having to organise the hospital - plus, his controversial gambling service - so that everyone could be sure that all four members of Danger and Co. were healthy enough to protect them; it kept the doctor popular with the residents of The Garden.  
'I was thinking of filling this entire space with party snacks!' Hijack continued. 'Although, I don't think there are enough party snacks in the world to fit in here, let alone The Garden... What is it with small food that makes it so good? Heh, never mind... Maybe we should use our very limited space for something useful like clothes or whatever...' Hijack slammed the lid of the compartment down, making the others jump from the noise. 'Now, who wants to see the inside?'


	4. The Stowaway's Story

When the treaty for The Garden was signed in September 2013, the individual who was then known as David Frederick Brewer was a scraggly little zone-rat with long, unkempt blond hair and a face covered in blandly-coloured grit that irritated the skin, leaving it rough and dry. Only twelve years old with no hope for the future.

As many of the children of Battery City, David had grown up in a Better Living Industries orphanage; no home to take refuge in, nobody to look up to, and nobody to even care about. David just existed - and existed badly, according to Better Living Industries.  
No matter how many times the put David through thought adjustment, and no matter how many sticky plastic capsules David was forced to swallow, there was still no way of making the young orphan accept the ideas of gender that were deemed correct by BL/ind.  
Knowing that keeping the child around would eventually lead to the spread of ideas considered unsavoury to Better Living Industries, David was forced onto the streets where there was no need of such a young child.

Soon enough, news spread around about the capture of The Mad-Gear and Missile Kid fairly early on in the same year as the treaty. David became fascinated by the idea of the Killjoy movement that was whispered about in the darkened backstreets of the city.  
David took to hanging about near the borders of Battery City, looking out into the dusty wasteland and wondering what was going on out there - what could even survive the radiation that was constantly droned about on the televisions?

After a few months of watching and waiting - and sometimes running from the Battery City border guards - David's obsession with the mysteries of the outside finally paid off.  
On April the ninth 2013, a prison break happened under the noses of all Better Living employees. Four Killjoys entered the city, freeing The Mad-Gear and Missile Kid - something that nobody had ever thought possible.  
David was sitting hidden from view in the shadows of a dumpster, looking out beyond the borders, when the sage-green campervan appeared - going at speeds that no campervan should ever attempt - and six oddly-dressed people jumped out, taking on the border guards with their customised guns.  
Taking a once-in-a-lifetime chance, David hoped that the firefight would cause enough of a distraction that nobody would notice a small child climbing into the back of a Killjoy vehicle. And nobody did.  
It was only when The Weathervanes, along with The Mad-Gear and Missile Kid, returned to their van that they noticed David - who was already strapped in one of the seats and looking eager to go. The only question asked was a brief 'You got anywhere safer to be?' From the kind figure that David would later know to be The Earth, before The Sun resumed his position in the driving seat so that he could continue pushing the campervan to unreasonable speeds.

They stopped at a small camp in the Zones a while after they set off, lighting a campfire and heating up some of the canned supplies that The Weathervanes had brought. The Killjoys introduced themselves and David gave them some information in return: background, interests, that sort of stuff. After a short period of time had passed, The Moon spoke up.  
'So, what are your pronouns?' He asked. But, seeing that nobody had yet educated David on the subject, The Moon took it upon himself to explain the views of gender as they were seen out in the Zones. David enjoyed this lesson, and before long ze had discovered the pronouns that had always been missing from zes former life in Battery City.

When they reached Camp Youngblood, The Sun introduced their new guest as "Davie the Stowaway".  
Davie was looked after at the camp, but ze never really got along with anyone in particular. Ze kept to zesself, mostly reading or learning to fire a ray-gun out in the courtyard. Most of all, ze loved to hear about the courageous escapades of The Fabulous Four, hearing about all of their hard work gave Davie the idea that the world would change for the better - and that the Killjoys were going to make it happen.  
On zes fourteenth birthday, after a couple of years living at Camp Youngblood, Davie was approached by zes idol - the one and only Party Poison - who had drawn a comic book as a birthday present. It was about an eyepatch-wearing Killjoy deity called Halloween Jack, who was said to have lived in Empire City and Party Poison insisted was real (or maybe real at one point, Party could not be sure). The comic became Davie's prized possession and ze still kept it five years later.

Life at the camp was not for Davie, ze decided in the early months of 2016, zes main goal in life had been to explore the Zones - so that was where ze was going.  
Armed with a cool new green ray-gun and dressed mostly in bright pink, and with a new Killjoy alias based off of zes favourite comic, Davie headed out. No idea where ze was going, but it did not matter. The route would choose itself. And it did.

It had only been four months, but the lone Killjoy was growing tired. It was an endless cycle of walk, sleep, fight, think about food. There was nothing to do except face the fact that ze could never face all the bad in the world when walking alone. Ze was eventually captured by Draculoids, and, instead of being ghosted on sight, the young Killjoy was sent to The Garden, where ze would eventually decide that ze needed a team to help fight the injustice in the world.

Three years later, in 2019, Hijack AllHallows lived at 5 Sanders Crescent, ze looked up to The Fabulous Four, and ze would do absolutely anything for the three friends that ze lived with.


	5. Key To The Future

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hijack skipped over to the door in the side of the caravan, brushing away a clump of blue hair from in front of zes eyes before fishing a key attached to a bit of card from zes right-side jacket pocket and ramming it into the lock on the door. Hijack tried to twist the key in its socket but ended up moving zes body more than anything. Ze was not very good with doors.  
Pepé took over from there, giving Hijack an exaggerated look of disbelief before simply unlocking the door. He stood back, arms raised towards the door to suggest that it was one of his bigger accomplishments - something more astounding than the security system that he had installed around the house, even - making even Sorrow roll his eyes at this silent show of sarcasm.

Leading the way through the doorway, Hijack pranced inside. There was another door directly opposite of the one they entered through and another just to the right.  
On the left was a small kitchen; the oven was located nearest the door with a sink next to it, below the window. There were also some cupboards which Hijack quickly opened and closed to display their interiors, showing that the cupboard furthest from the door was actually a small refrigerator made to look like an ordinary cupboard.  
Just past the kitchen was a small seating area. Two dull beige sofas faced each other in the well-lit front space of the caravan.  
'The colour's a bit... Meh. But there's still work to be done here!' Hijack explained, clambering onto one of the seats and crouching on it awkwardly. 'Vinnie, wanna help me reupholster these? If you replace the fabric, I'll be on throw and cushion duty!'  
''Spose so.' Vindici answered, knowing that she and Hijack were the only members of their crew that had any sewing ability whatsoever - Pepé was much more suited to technical stuff, and Sorrow would end up painting both the interior and exterior.  
'Knew you would, Vinniedoodles! Oh! And Pepsicle is gonna set the place up with solar panels! It's gonna be fuckin' awesome!' Ze hopped down from atop the chair, muttering 'scratchy, scratchy beige stuff...' As ze rubbed zes hand on the sofa.

'And if you turn around,' Hijack continued, 'you will see, to your left, a small cupboard which, if you guys don't trick me into finding a useful purpose for it, will be used for storing roller-skates 'n' other random junk!'  
'You won't be able to fit your skates in it if I turn it into book storage first!' Sorrow joked, smirking and gently elbowing Hijack in the ribs.  
'Heh. Well, anywaaaay, just beyond the cupboard is the bathroom!' Ze pointed across to the door that was opposite from the one that they had entered through. 'Can't do without that, right?' The response was a series of exaggerated growns from the rest of the team. 'Fair enough then! I guess it's time for the main event!'

Hijack nudged zes way back over to the door at the other end of the small main room, stretching out zes arms for a small warmup and hoping not to get injured trying to open it.  
The door squeaked a little when opened, but, other than that, there were no malfunctions and the Killjoys could easily pile into the cramped room.

There were bunk beds on either side of the room and a small antique-looking chest of drawers lodged at the end, under the window.  
'This one's mine!' Hijack yelled, propelling zes body into the upper-right bunk. 'The one below is Pep's! He called dibsies on it!'  
Sorrow took the lower left bed (a predictable choice considering his fear of heights), allowing Vindici to take the one above him - in all, this arrangement worked out perfectly for each of the Killjoys.

Having climbed into her bunk and staring across at Hijack, Vindici gave a puzzled look.  
'Why do we need a caravan anyway?' She asked, watching for Hijack to respond.  
Ze opened zes mouth then closed it again, looking a lot like some form of genetically enhanced marine life form in exhibit at Empire City Aquarium.

'Well... You see... Uh...' Ze finally babbled, trying to find some composure. Ze took a deep breath, pausing for a moment in a look of deep concentration. 'We are going to take down Nuclear Sunshine!'


	6. An Idea To Live For

'Wait, what?' Vindici gasped, looking at Hijack blankly, waiting for it to be revealed that what ze had just said was some form of a joke.  
'Hey! I put "Take down N-S" on our to-do list for a reason!' Ze responded.  
'I think we all thought that was a joke...' Mumbled Sorrow, who was also a little concerned by the way Hijack was insisting that zes plan was real. 'You cant be serious! Right?'  
'You are serious?' Vindici was shocked. 'Like, seriously serious?'  
'Yep! Abso-fucking-lutely seriously serious!'  
'But that would mean going all the way over to Wasp State!' Vindici pointed out. 'Who will watch over everyone whilst we're gone?'  
'BL/ind interference is currently the lowest it has ever been! Anyway, The Pizza Party have things under control!' Pepé nodded in response to Hijack's statement, The Pizza Party, although seemingly nonsensical (making The Garden's centre of government in an abandoned pizzeria was just the start of their nonsense), had done a lot of good for The Garden whilst they had been in control - and, for some reason, the famous Sprout Quota of 2015 had been an unexpected success.  
'Fair enough.'  
'Yeah! That settles it! Best get started decorating!'

There was much to do to get the caravan up to Killjoy standards, and that started with the four of them gathering whatever materials they could find; several half-empty tins of paint in various colours, a few balls of brightly-coloured wool, sparkly adhesive-backed rhinestones, and other miscellaneous junk that had been clogging up some forgotten corner of their house - exactly the sort of seemingly useless trash that would have never been allowed in the S/C/A/R/E/C/R/O/W-patrolled hives of the Better Living cities, and which the Killjoys stashed away as if the false jewels were real and the tinsel were actually made of pure gold leaf.

As Pepé gathered a tangle of technical-looking multi-coloured wires atop a few stacked ocean-coloured solar-panels - all clearly purchased from Empire City scavengers - Sorrow and Hijack worked together to load a wheelbarrow with fancy papers and fabric off cuts. Vindici, meanwhile, was inside, using all of her strength to tear the coarse beige material from the chairs, removing it all in preparation for its replacement.  
Once the many wheelbarrow trips had resulted in a large pile of decorating materials and building tools right in the middle of Sanders Crescent, and Pepé had secured a heavy ladder beside the caravan, the real work could start.  
Sorrow prised open each of the tins with an old rusty chisel, trying to ignore the hiss as the contents depressurised and the splatter of paint that followed. A spray of purple pigment flew off to Sorrow's right-hand side, staining the worn-out tarmac of the road.  
'Ro, try not to get that on my crochet supplies!' Hijack called out as ze fished around in the materials pile for something useful, pulling out what appeared to be a bright orange shower curtain, a roll of duct tape, and a clear container which held a small handful of giant metallic paperclips and a permanent marker. 'I'll be needing those soon!' Ze tucked, zes findings under his arm (except the tape, which ze had decided to wear as a bracelet), heading inside the caravan to join Vindici.  
Sorrow dipped a brush into the slightly congealed paint, creating a repetitive piston-like movement with it for a moment before beginning to draw plum-coloured stripes onto the white walls of the caravan.  
Above, Pepé was crouched, noisily drilling into the roof of the caravan so that he could secure the solar-panels onto it.

The four Killjoys were hard at work, knowing that their lives would only get harder as time progressed.


	7. The Technician's Story

The Empire City School of Technology was a tough place to be at any given time, but seventeen-year-old Kyo Tachibana hated it the most.

Kyo was the only child of two hard-working Better Living Industries officials (his mother was a scientist whilst his father worked as a press officer) who took pride in their heritage and genes which were preferred by BL/ind. Kyo's parents owned an entire two top-level floors in the tower-block in which Kyo had been raised, not by them, but by a team of household droids which were programmed to cater to his every need, but prevented him from doing anything that could be considered rebellious - or, even, fun.  
Day after day of watching the heartless rubbish that was broadcasted on the television - BL/ind sports, science documentaries, the news - was taking its toll, but Kyo was too scared to do anything else. But, one day, after a seemingly endless string of MouseKat cartoons, there happened to be a special informational video on droid maintenance. It got Kyo thinking - was it possible to take down the droids that watched his every move?

Kyo started to take an interest in the inner workings of droids, something not unexpected of someone raised to become a Better Living employee. He gathered up as many documents as he could scavenge; some from television recordings, some from the manuals for the droids that he lived with, some from the offices of his own parents (although, he had to be sneaky in order to get those without being noticed). But when he was finally found in the cold of the pantry, surrounded by paperwork and diagrams, his parents seemed overjoyed that their child was taking risks to fuel an interest in a field of technology that BL/ind would eventually benefit from.  
And that is how Kyo Tachibana ended up in a place that he hated even more than his own home.

The school in Empire City was not unlike the Tachibana household; the building that housed it was also immensely tall, the interior design was light and modern, and the place was incredibly overrun by droids.  
There were, of course, human teachers who lectured on about the work that they had done with Better Living Industries before they were suddenly uprooted and relocated to the Empire City School of Technology. But droids cooked, cleaned, and sometimes taught lessons themselves - what better way to learn about droids than from a droid itself?  
Worst of all was Droid Matron, the stout droid that watched over the mass of boarding students, such as Kyo, to make sure they stayed out of trouble and went to sleep at exactly eight o'clock every night. Kyo was terrified of Droid Matron, its glowing red LED light eyes pierced through the dark dormitory when he was supposed to be sleeping. There seemed to be no escape from the endless glare of the all-knowing droid.  
A story had been spread around that, in one of the other dormitories, a student named Latoya Hayes had gone "missing" after Droid Matron had seen her trying to make an escape. People said that Droid Matron's red eyes had become lasers, immediately ghosting the young girl where she stood.

Kyo was scared, but he was determined to get justice for all of the people who had been wronged by BL/ind and their service droids.  
He waited, gathering up all of the knowledge that he had acquired during his seventeen years of life, and, when the time finally came, he took his chance.

Two bunks down from where Kyo slept in the dormitory was a boy called Joel Thomas, with whom Kyo got along with more than some of the other people in the school. Joel was quite smart, even though he usually acted without thought and often ended up in trouble with the lecturers for giving stupid and sarcastic answers. Joel had only taken up the position at the school so that he could get away from his home in Saint City where he would have been expected to follow in his older brother's footsteps and become a janitor for one of Nuclear Sunshine's facilities.

The plan began when Joel managed to smuggle a screwdriver from one of the practical classes that were part of his course; Joel had to do it because Kyo would never have dared to do such a thing.  
On the night that the main part of their plan took place, the two of them both got into their bunks as normal, waiting for Droid Matron to appear in the doorway. When the feared droid did eventually show up, Joel emitted a piercing shriek, attracting the attention of Droid Matron.  
In response to the sudden loud noise, Droid Matron rolled over to the bunk where Joel lay, not expecting him to throw his blanket over the sensors in its face. The droid twisted rapidly, trying to remove the covering, but Kyo jumped up too quickly, using the screwdriver to remove the panel on Droid Matron's back so that the override switch was revealed.

Of the sixteen students that inhabited the dormitory, only five of them decided to escape - Kyo, Joel, and three others - each going their own ways once they finally got out of the school. The eleven that stayed were punished; an entire year of community service for each of them, eventually leading to a severe drop in their grades. Nothing ever became of them. Two of the three others, Kyo found out later, had returned to the school, repenting for their escape and promising not to do it again. The other one was ghosted whilst trying to cross into Toll State. Nobody knew what happened to Joel - he just sort of disappeared.  
Kyo lived on the streets for a few years, until 2017, taking a new name based off of the graffiti on the side of the warehouse which he lived in, leaving his past behind. He fixed cars to earn carbons, hoping that one day he would be able to leave Empire City and go somewhere that would accept him for who he was, not who he was descended from.

And then the blue-haired Killjoy showed up.

In 2019, Pepé G. Paradis had gone from being the closely-protected family treasure, to becoming the tall and intimidatingly reserved technician for an Anti-Exterminator Killjoy group called Danger and Co.


	8. The Dangers Of Bowling

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **Hey... Hey! HEY! Guess what!  
> **   
>  **No, not that.  
> **   
>  **Something much cooler:**
> 
> ****Beyond The End will be returning soon!  
>  **(And I guess this will go on a sort of hiatus unless I try to run them both at the same time... Which might happen.)**** **

Sorrow looked over to Vindici, holding up a rather battered book entitled "The Running Man"; the book had clearly been through a lot as its pages were yellowed, dog-eared, and falling out - but that was still much better than being incinerated in a BL/ind furnace. 'Good book. This Richard Bachman's a great author!' He called over. 'Shame the dude only wrote seven books though... Y'know, two of them were published posthumously...'  
'He good enough to compete with that King dude that does the horror stuff?' Vindici enquired, leaning back on one of the formerly beige chairs (which had become a smooth patchwork of various tartans, whilst the other had poignant stripes of black and neon).  
''Bout even. Like, some of this stuff is absolutely brutal! You really don't want to know what happens at the end of the book...'  
'How many deaths?'  
'Not telling.' Sorrow stuffed the book into a faded carrier bag (for a supermarket which no longer existed after being taken over by BL/ind) along with a bunch of other similarly worn-out books, then attempted to stuff it into the cupboard in the caravan alongside Vindici's croquet mallets, four sets of roller-skates, a brightly-coloured children's toy piano from a time long before everything existed in monochrome (with a strange-looking and rather bulky contraption attached to it which acted like an adapter so that it could be powered by Better Living batteries), and a large red toolbox covered in glittery butterfly stickers.

The door clicked open and Pepé marched in with a selection of knitted blankets almost falling from his arms: one black, one cyan, one magenta, and one red. He blinked twice in the direction of his two friends and continued through to the bedroom. It was clear that the newly-knitted blankets were Hijack's handiwork, and that Hijack had probably told Pepé to take them inside whilst ze sat outside, distracted by the ability to make more socks than were necessary.  
After taking the blankets into the bedroom, Pepé spent some time making the beds, spending more time than was needed trying to tuck the overhanging corners down the sides of the thin mattresses.

Pepé was fluffing up the generic pillows that someone (presumably Vindici, judging by the fact that there were three pillows on her bunk, but only one on each of the others) had laid out - taking care to make them extra squishy - when he heard the shouting from outside.

'Guys! We have a mission!' Hijack called as the others ran out to see what was going on.  
Conni Q, one of the group's neighbours on Sanders Crescent (who had also worked with them back when Danger and Co. was nothing but a concept), was standing beside Hijack, her bicycle (the one with inward-pointing knives tied to the spokes of the front wheel, and a similar arrangement of guns on the back wheel) was splayed out in the middle of the road, appearing that she had been in such a rush that she did not feel the need to kick down the little stand by the pedals.  
'I was just hanging out at the Bowlaway with a bunch uh peeps - y'know, like Lennie, Toya, the rest uh the staff there, and a few of The Pizza Party too - when a bunch uh fuckin' Dracs barged in!' Conni explained, adjusting the mismatched fake gold bangles that covered most of her arms. 'We fended them off as much as we could with our ray-guns - and Mork The Guy deployed an aerial bowling ball attack, which was absolutely fuckin' sweet! Still, they weren't all that interested in us, most of us managed to escape.' She pointed to herself and looked over at her bike, indicating the already obvious point that she had been one of the Killjoys that had escaped from the bowling alley (which also, for some unknown reason, doubled as a hairdressing salon). 'Yeah, they were going for the big boss. Whole place is on lockdown now but Claudio trapped himself inside. I guess yuh better hurry up and save the Bowlaway, then.'


	9. Barricade

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so I am writing this in the rather early hours of the morning where I am because I can't sleep and I was feeling a little guilty for leaving this without an update in a while. So here it is. It will be the last D&C update in a while because (guess what!) BtE is returning tomorrow!
> 
> Yes, you read that correctly. Beyond The End book 2 will happen tomorrow (April 9th, Gerard Way's birthday) and it will be awesome. Chapter 2 will also be out for Tuesday (April 12th, Brendon Urie's birthday) so that will be cool. There are quite a few musician birthdays coming up (so many), I can't possibly do updates for them all, but who knows.
> 
> Okay, enough of my half-asleep ramblings. Here is a thing to read.

With the caravan still attached to the back of their car (because they did not have the time to sort it out), the four members of Danger and Co., with Conni Q sitting in one of the extra seats, headed over to the Bowlaway.  
Everything seemed normal enough; there were plenty of vehicles strewn awkwardly on the gritty surface of the car park, the old blue video rental store (which also sold audio recordings, DVDs, computer games, and radio equipment) was closed as usual due to lack of staff, and that one light was intermittently flickering orange at the top of its lamppost in the middle of the day for no reason whatsoever - just as it always did.

A helicopter buzzed overhead, the only sign that something was wrong. The Garden did not have helicopters, all the helicopters belonged to BL/ind or subsidiaries of BL/ind.  
Helicopters were not supposed to be in The Garden.

The gravel crunched beneath their feet as the five Killjoys each jumped out of the car, almost in unison, drawing their weapons and sprinting over to the building.  
Getting closer to the Bowlaway, it was noticeable that there were figures in the upper level of the building, obscured by the frosted glass of the remaining windows of the offices up there.  
That was where the trouble was.  
That was where Danger and Co. was needed.

Hijack ran ahead. The doors to the bowling alley were locked tight, the nomally automatic main entrance would not open no matter how much ze pulled. Hijack kicked the door, flinching back because it hurt quite a bit.  
By then, the others had caught up, also trying to pull the door open. Hijack was relieved that it was not just zes problem with doors, but also rather disappointed because it meant that they would have to find another way in.

Sorrow jogged over to the alley that split the Bowlaway from the unnamed video store, vanishing, calling over to the others to get them to follow.  
The alley led round to the back of the building where there was a fire escape leading up to a red door plastered with the electric blue storm cloud motif of Claudio Cumulus. Yeah, it was probably the best way in, and the door looked pretty worn out too.

Vindici took the lead now, scrambling up the rusty metal stairs and over to the door. She considered battering it down with her mallet, but decided that kicking would be a whole lot faster.  
The door burst open at the seventh kick and the Killjoys burst into the office.  
A large, lumpy form huddled in one corner under a sky-blue cape emitted a small yelp. It was most definitely Claudio, who had opened the Bowlaway in 2017, after being kicked out of Second City for repeated refusal to follow BL/ind's sexual orientation laws. His cape was also half-covering some sort of heavy-duty safe; the contents of which were all of the funds needed to keep the bowling alley open.

'What are you doing here?' Mumbled Claudio, peering out from beneath his cape.  
'Coming to your rescue, of course!' Hijack exclaimed, posing in a heroic stance. 'By the way, you better be thankful that Sorrow found that back door before the Dracs did, although, Draculoids are not the smartest of evil goon types!'  
'Also,' Sorrow muttered, 'today's word of the day is "Barricade". Learn to build one.'


End file.
